The music of "Blessed Be" was written, performed and produced by Kevin Atwood

"You can't help but feel good when you hear this CD."

From the very beginning the concept behind Blessed Be was to deliver an uniquely inspirational, instrumental music CD by combining real instruments with electronically generated sounds. Inspired by the music of Mike Oldfield, Enya and Genesis, with a vision to produce an exceptional music CD that could tell a story without words.

You can say a lot without words ...

"This CD has a very unique sound. You can say a lot without words. The guitar riffs playing throughout the songs are incredible. One after another - they just keep coming". -anonymous listener from Garage Band.com

“My music can be a very visceral experience.”

Since there are no lyrics (words) to get in the way, your imagination is free to take you wherever it wants to go. Many people often describe places or action that they've imagined during their listening experience with the music on Blessed Be.

It's interesting to note that most people have similar visualizing experiences.

The world is filled will negativity and sadness. All one has to do is turn on a television, listen to a news broadcast or read a newspaper to see this. With all of the negative influences in the world, it's easy to lose perspective. The positive music of Blessed Be will help dissolve away negativity help realign personal perspective!

“I've intentionally designed the music on Blessed Be to be positive and uplifting.”

"I want people to have a pleasant experience when they listen to my music. The music of Blessed Be will help you disconnect from the weeds of everyday life and surround yourself with the flowers."

Instruments Used on the Blessed Be CD

Guitar is the featured instrument in 10 out of the 12 tracks on Blessed Be. A variety of guitars were used in order to achieve the CD's unique sound. On all the electric guitars Rotosound Roto Blues light top heavy bottom (gauges 10 to 52) strings were used.

Some of the instruments featured on "Blessed Be"

Rickenbacker 340 Electric Guitar

A semi-hollow, 3 pickup, 6 string electric guitar. It's got the classic electric "ricky" guitar sound that can really thicken up a track. It also has a round organic lead sound which was used on the title track Blessed Be.

Yamaha CG-150CCE Classical Guitar

One of the top-on-the-line Classical Guitars Yamaha made in the late 70’s with inboard acoustic pickup and electronics. This guitar was featured on the track Sunset on Io. The strings used on this guitar are Savarez Red strings which are pretty high tension strings

Washburn SBF80-12 12-String Electric-Acoustic Guitar

A semi-hollow body, 12-string guitar with built in pre-amp using piezoelectric bridge pickups. This guitar has extraordinary high-end response.

Through out the CD, 2 different tracks of 12-string guitar are used with different modal voicing's for each in order make the sound of one "big" guitar (a trick borrowed from Genesis).

Spretzels tuners and titanium alloy string pins which were installed a a few years ago have greatly enhanced the sustain and overall sound quality of the guitar.

Rickenbacker 4001 Bass

(sorry no pic available for this guitar)

Four strings, two truss rods, 2 pick-ups with Rick-O-Sound. This particular bass was made in the seventies.

Parker NiteflyElectric Guitar

The Parker Nitefly is a similar design to a Fender Stratocaster with the addition of a piezoelectric pickup under the bridge saddles.

This guitar created the signature lead acoustic sound used on Blessed Be. The acoustic pizeo output from this guitar was process through a compressor then into a 10 Band EQ, volume pedal and D.I. box.

Mighty Mite Hybrid 6-String Electric Guitar

A kit guitar in the late 70’s. The body is made of Hawaiian Koa and styled after a B.C. Rich Mockingbird guitar body design.

The neck is made of maple hardwood and is a copy of a Fender Stratocaster design (pre-CBS).Both pickups are Seymour Duncans, P.A.F. models. These pickups were the last thing added to this guitar and really brought the feel and sound together.

The tuning keys are Grovers. All hardware is brass except for the nut which is graphite.top

The Effects and Treatments

E-Bow

Roland DS-1 distortion

The Bass POD

The Guitar POD 2.0

MXR Phase 90

Various out-board reverbs, compressors and multi-effects (too numerous to enumerate)

Artist of the Blessed Be CD

Kevin Atwood (born September 13, 1957) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer, working in a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music and New Age. His music has been descried as “visionary, opulent, symphonic, sweet and somber”.

Atwood has been interested in music, guitars and synthesizes since his early teen years. For his first high school music project he built a random tone synthesizer from a small Radio Shack circuit board and surplus electronic parts from old televisions. In the mid-seventies he and two other high school friends put together a music group called Paralandra which started out as an avant-garde ensemble and later morphed into the only progressive art rock band Nova Scotia, Canada. Atwood has also written music for a variety of modern dance choreographers in Canada.

Over the past 37 years, he has worked with literally hundreds of bands either as a performing musician or audio engineer. Atwood has also co-written music with Caron Nightingale, which has been distributed in over 17 different countries and has been used in several television and radio network programs including Global TV’s “Santa Claus Parade”.

All the music on "Blessed Be" was written, produced and performed entirely by Kevin Atwood in his studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.